Since The Cold War | MI5 - The Security Service Since The Cold War SINCE THE COLD WAR By Professor Christopher Andrew, author of "The Defence of the Realm". The end of the Cold War, the sudden collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989 and the disintegration of the Soviet Union itself in 1991 transformed the priorities of the Security Service. MI5 reported to the Home Secretary that ‘between 1989 and 1991, the already declining subversive threat reached a new low and the espionage threat from some countries (with the notable exception of Russia) all but disappeared.’ In 1992 MI5 ceased to keep a record of ‘rank-and-file members of subversive organisations’. During the early 1990s the Service became for the first time in its history primarily a counter-terrorist, rather than a counter-espionage, agency. It could not complete the transition, however, until it gained the lead intelligence role against the main current terrorist threat, the Provisional IRA (PIRA) campaign in mainland Britain.

On 7 February 1991 a PIRA mortar, fired from a Ford Transit van in Horseguards Avenue, exploded on the Downing Street lawn in the middle of a cabinet meeting. The Prime Minister, John Major, was told that, if the mortar had landed ten feet closer to the Cabinet Room, which overlooks the lawn, ‘half the Cabinet could have been killed.’ The near success of the mortar attack, following the Brighton bombing during the Conservative Party conference seven years earlier, emphasised the need for better intelligence on IRA attacks. The case for transferring the main intelligence responsibility from the Metropolitan Police Special Branch (MPSB) to the Security Service was reinforced by Service successes against PIRA on the continent, where it already had the lead intelligence role. The decision to give the Service the lead role against PIRA in Britain was announced by the Home Secretary, Ken Clarke, to the Commons on 8 May 1991. The official handover from the MPSB took place on 1 October 1991 On her appointment as Director General in March 1992, Stella Rimington became the first female head of any of the world’s leading intelligence agencies.

Though the first cracks in the glass ceiling which limited women’s employment opportunities in the Security Service had appeared during the First World War, progress had later slowed. In 1972 many female graduates had signed a petition complaining against career discrimination. The biggest obstacle to female promotion was the long-standing belief throughout the British intelligence community that women were unsuitable for agent-running. That barrier was broken in 1978 when Rimington became one of the first female agent-runners. By the time she became DG, over 40% of MI5’s officers (and a majority of other staff) were women. Rimington was also the first DG whose appointment was publicly announced. Once she got over the shock of her early encounter with the paparazzi, she began to see media interest and her unprecedented public visibility as a means of helping to ‘blow away’ myths about the Service. In June 1994 she became the first DG to appear in public when she delivered a televised lecture on ‘Security and Democracy: Is There a Conflict?’ Later the same year, Rimington appeared before the newly established oversight committee of parliamentarians, the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC): a practice continued by her successors.

In 1997 the Service began advertising openly for recruits and releasing its early records to the National Archives. The following year MI5 launched the first version of its Internet website. Between 1977 and 1989 there was no year when PIRA attacks in Britain occurred on more than four days. In 1990, however, there were attacks on nineteen days – more than during the whole of the 1980s. The total rose to a record forty-seven days in 1992. The outlook then appeared bleak – not least because PIRA had begun a bombing campaign against the City of London, intending to destroy its position as the financial capital of Europe by persuading foreign financial businesses to relocate out of London. Despite devastating bomb attacks on the Baltic Exchange and the NatWest Tower, PIRA failed to achieve its aim. A Whitehall report commented: ‘Only a combination of good intelligence, good policing and good luck prevented several more incidents on a similar scale.’ Among other counter-terrorism successes was Operation AIRLINES which, in the summer of 1996, defeated a well-planned PIRA attempt to disrupt the whole of Greater London’s electricity supply.

The Security Service believed that its success in limiting PIRA’s mainland bombing campaign helped to bring to an end the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Sir Stephen Lander , Rimington’s successor as DG, told Prime Minister Tony Blair at a meeting on 30 October 1997 that, following the PIRA ceasefire begun three months earlier, key figures in its leadership seemed ‘prepared to consider a settlement which stops short of a united Ireland’. Most proved willing to accept the power-sharing Belfast Agreement concluded on Good Friday 1998, which provided that Northern Ireland would remain part of the United Kingdom as long as a majority of its people wished. Fact or Fiction? Dame Stella Rimington | MI5 - The Security Service Dame Stella Rimington What's in a name? Dame Stella Rimington (Director General 1992-96) Dame Stella Rimington (born 1935) was the first woman to become Director General of the Security Service on her appointment to that position in 1992. The following year she became the Service's first publicly acknowledged DG. She joined the Service in 1969 and worked in a variety of roles, including counter-subversion and counter-terrorism.

She became the first woman to be promoted to the rank of Director of a Service branch. Under her management as Director General, the Service took on the lead role in the fight against Irish republican terrorism. Dame Stella also instituted a policy of greater public openness that included the beginning of an ongoing programme of releasing historical Service files to the National Archives . Dame Stella retired from the Service in 1996. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath in the same year and published her autobiography, Open Secret, in 2001. Since then she has published a number of novels set in the world of intelligence and counter-terrorism. Fact or Fiction? Stella Rimington's secret service, and Peter Andren on running for parliament - ABC Conversations with Richard Fidler Stella Rimington's secret service, and Peter Andren on running for parliament Wednesday 23 August 2006 Download audio Dame Stella Rimington joined England's Security Service (MI5) in 1965 and became the first female Director-General of that organisation in 1992. She was also the first Director-General whose name was publicised upon appointment.

She retired in 1996, becoming a non-executive director of Marks & Spencer and British Gas. She has since published her autobiography, 'Open Secret' and two novels, 'At Risk' and 'Secret Asset'. Dame Stella Rimington joined England's Security Service (MI5) in 1965 and became the first female Director-General of that organisation in 1992. She was also the first Director-General whose name was publicised upon appointment. She retired in 1996, becoming a non-executive director of Marks & Spencer and British Gas. She has since published her autobiography, 'Open Secret' and two novels, 'At Risk' and 'Secret Asset'. Stella clearly remembers when she was first recruited by the MI5. "I was not doing a great deal," she comments. "I was the wife of a diplomat, my first profession was that of historical archivist and that was what I was doing when I got married and my husband was posted to the British High Commission in New Delhi.

"To go off with my man in India, I gave up my career as women were programmed to do back then, and there I was in India being the wife of a diplomat and doing what the diplomats did in the 1960s which was not a great deal except appearing in amateur dramatics and organising jumble sales, when I got the tap on the shoulder. And that was the way that British Intelligence recruited people in those days. It was a very covert business. I say that somebody said to me, 'Pssst, do you want to be a spy?' but in fact they didn't. What they actually said was, 'Do you want a small part-time job in the office?' So that's how I joined, as a clerk typist in the office in New Delhi." Later, Stella became a spy, but found it was nowhere near as glamorous a profession as the movies portrayed it. "If you're running sources and human beings are the best source of intelligence, you do occasionally have to pretend to be someone else and adopt a covert persona," she says. "I found it more stressful than thrilling. It can cause a bit of mental confusion.

When I was doing that work, I was also a mother with two small children and balancing being a mother and worrying about your children and adopting covert personas can be very confusing... "You end up in a sort of schizophrenic state. Some mornings you wake up wondering who you are and of course you get training to do that, it's not something you do off the top of your head." Ultimately though, she says working in intelligence is an uplifting job. "The things that they're dealing with now are terrorism mainly and that's a pretty desperate business and it can get very depressing. But I think the way people cope with that is by having a sense of humour, and there's certainly a great deal of humour, you could say black humour, people who work in intelligence are not depressed people at all. They're very confident that what they're doing is worthwhile... and that they're trying to prevent dreadful things happening and very frequently succeed." **************** Peter Andren was elected as the Independent Federal Member for Calare in 1996, after careers in teaching and journalism. He was the local TV newsreader when he quit his job to run for parliament. He remembers he made the decision after discussions with his news colleagues.

"The sitting member David Simmons came in on the Hawke wave and looked like going out on the Keating backwash. David had done an excellent job, I was discussing with some of my colleagues in the newsroom, and the prospects of the potential candidates weren't that exciting from what I could see and someone said, 'Why don't you run?' and I said 'What as?... I'd only run as an independent' and they said, 'Well, why don't you think of that?' "I think the election was called on Australia Day and I'd anticipated that Keating would use that symbolism and on the Friday before, I threw caution to the wind and announced at the end of the news that I'd decided to have a run for politics and I was taking extended leave. I might be back, but I hope not to be because I hoped to be the member. It was a way of saying why I won't be back on Monday." He believes it is possible to have an impact as an independent.

"Going back to Tampa in 2001, I said that night that my sister was supporting John Howard up to the hilt, I said I suspect the majority of my electorate supports John Howard up to the hilt, and I said that I did not, and I set out the reasons why we had a responsibility to the people who were fleeing the very regimes we were in the process of fighting. Now I think public opinion has shifted. They're able now to separate fear from the equation and look at things in the cold hard light of day and recognise what an asylum seeker is. And whether it's that, or taking a position on MP's entitlements of superannuation, I led the debate with other independents over the years... They've almost put the 'keep the bastards honest' tag on me to some extent." Stella Rimington A former Director General of MI5, bestselling author and sought after speaker. Fee guidelines: Up to £20,000 Region: UK Dame Stella Rimington became the first female Director General of M15 in 1992 and remained in the role until 1996 - she became the first to be named when on appointment to the prestigious and highly responsible position.

Now one of Britain's foremost female authors, Dame Stella is also a sought after speaker and an inspiration to women - and men - with ambition, at home in the UK and around the world. MI5: Security Service MI5: Security Service The entrance to Thames House The Security Service was set up in 1909 to counter espionage against British organisations by foreign powers. In recent years its remit has widened to include counter-terrorism, subversion and organised crime, although it has lost the latter responsibility to SOCA. Former Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall John Alderson had the following to say regarding MI5's expansion into organised crime; "It is fatal to let the secret service into the area of ordinary crime. MI5 is not under the same restraints as the police. They infiltrate organisations, people's jobs and lives. They operate almost like a cancer." "At the moment the acorn of a Stasi [the former East German communists' secret service] has been planted. It is there for future governments to build on." MI5 has a full-time staff of 3,600 increasing to 4,100 by 2011 and an undisclosed annual budget.

It is divided into branches: `A': deals with bugging, breakins and surveillance; `B': personnel; `C': protective security - the vetting of civil servants, security of state offices; `F': internal surveillance of subversives; trade unions, radical and campaigning groups; and of terrorist groups (including the IRA); `K': counter-espionage against `hostile' agents. The ruling by the European Commission on Human Rights that MI5 surveillance of Harriet Harman and Patricia Hewitt, former Legal Officer and General Secretary of NCCL/Liberty, was in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, led to the Security Service Act 1989, which recognised MI5 for the first time. The agency's role was defined as protecting "national security" against "threats from espionage, terrorism and sabotage, from activities of agents of foreign powers, and from actions intended to overthrow or undermine parliamentary democracy by political, industrial or violent means". Further legislation has been introduced in 1996 in the shape of the Security Services Bill, which was passed unopposed in the House of Commons on January 10.

This allows MI5 to monitor telephones, intercept mail, and enter the homes and offices of organized crime suspects. The Bill was later amended by the Home Office at the suggestion of the police, to state that MI5 will work in a support capacity to the police in its fight against organized crime. MI5 sought powers of arrest for its agents, but these were not granted. The current Director-General is Jonathan Evans as of 8 April 2007, an expert on al-Qaeda. On a personal note, the DG on 17 November 2001 who ordered my assassination in Florida was Stephen Lander, a serious criminal who ironically chairs the Serious Organised Crime Agency, presumably on the premise that it takes a thief to catch a thief. His photograph appears here. MI5 took over the lead role in the campaign against Irish terrorism from Special Branch in 1992. It has had a mixed record since. In 1993 the security services intercepted a shipment of weapons, destined for the Loyalist UVF in Belfast. It was subsequently revealed that the "bust" had most likely been fabricated as a public relations exercise.

At the trial in 1993 of two INLA men accused of trying to steal explosives from a quarry in Somerset, it was alleged that MI5 had orchestrated a sting to "prove" its effectiveness at a time when it was in competition with the police. The agency was unable to predict the timing of the end of the ceasefire (DT960306), and discounted the coded warnings sent in advance of the South Quay bomb. And in June 1996, after assurances that it had rolled up the IRA network on the Continent (ST960630), MI5 was criticised following the mortar bombing of a British barracks in Germany. A turf war developed (ST960505) between MI5 and the police force over MI5's increased involvement against the IRA and organised crime. Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist detectives blamed MI5 for "incompetence and bungling" over the Docklands bombing.

And although in 1993 then Home Secretary Kenneth Clarke wrote that "[organised crime does not] present a threat to the security of the UK", in 1995 Rimington signalled a broadening of activities (DT950120) in "support" of the police (whether they wanted MI5's support or not) in areas such as drug trafficking. And in a lecture to the English Speaking Union, Rimington called for her agency to join the fight against organized crime (DT951005). In November 1995 the Security Services Bill was introduced (DT951116) to "enable the Security Service to assist the law enforcement agencies in their work against organised crime". MPs passed it in January 1996 (DT960111). It is reported that in May 1996 only nine staff were tackling organised crime, and existing law only allows them to deal with terrorist organisations. The service lost its serious crime responsibility to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). Historically the Security Service's main task has been countering foreign espionage in Britain, and although the cold war may be over, some elements of the threat remain.

It was reported that MI5's counter-espionage resources have been cut by 50% (TM960329), at a time when the Russian intelligence agencies are said to be "back in business" and trying to post officers to London (DT960329) (DT960507). The use of telephone taps and mail interception by MI5 requires warrants issued by the Home Secretary (DT960703). The total number of warrants issued (for all services) was reported as 947 in 1994. However, it has been reported that 30,000 taps are placed each year by BT. These matters are covered by the Interception of Communications Act 1985, which provides for a tribunal to hear complaints. The tribunal received 37 new complaints in 1994, and upheld none. It has never upheld a complaint since its inception. The new digital exchanges greatly facilitate phone tapping remotely.

And now MI5 is seeking encryption keys for GSM digital mobile phones (TM960807) to enable them to listen in to terrorists, criminals, subversives and presumably the royal family when officers fancy some light entertainment. It is largely a waste of time complaining about Security Service intrusion in your life. In 1992 the Security Service Commissioner Lord Justice Stuart-Smith said that of 102 complaints in three years, 99 had no merit and in the other three cases the service's activities were justified. It has been alleged that MI5 keeps records on over a million potentially subversive UK residents. Moreover, the tribunal cannot give any information to a complainant (unless it decides MI5 has acted outside of its remit, and makes a recommendation for compensation to the Home Secretary). If it turns down an applicant (and it always does) then it cannot say whether or not they have been subject to surveillance. Worse still, recourse to the courts is not available in cases which go before the tribunal. As Alan Beith the Liberal Democrat police and security spokesman says, any complaint about MI5 surveillance or harassment will "just disappear into a black hole" (TM960506).

MI5 now openly recruits new graduates, having published a brochure (ST960421) to attract recruits. All staff are on performance-related pay (TM960401) and are expected to set objectives for themselves, and achieve them. It would appear that on occasion MI5 subverts democracy by turning known figures in politics, the media and industry into its agents. Betty Boothroyd, first woman Speaker of the House of Commons (TM960218), describes how MI5 asked her to spy on four Labour MPs. When she refused, MI5 got her banned as a security risk from the Foreign Office. It is also widely known that journalist Jon Snow (presently of Channel 4) was offered a tax-free salary to become their agent. He declined, and has indicated concern that others in the media might have received similar offers, and accepted. It is known that MI5 has moles in the organisations it operates against. Former NUM Chief Executive Roger Windsor is alleged to have been working for the service, although MI5 deny this. Another union official, NALGO general secretary Alan Jinkinson, has revealed how they tried to recruit him some years ago.

And a fairly extreme subversion of democracy has been the plot reported by Peter Wright to destabilise former prime minister Harold Wilson. A group of MI5 officers regarded him as a "bloody menace" and decided he would have to go. And go he did, in circumstances which are still not entirely clear. Watchers (A4 branch) are surveillance experts who observe targets from vehicles, on foot and from fixed posts (TM960506). They "interfere with property" by breaking and entering, with the authorisation of the Home Secretary. There are reports of their targetting individuals who are clearly not subversive. Alan Clark claims he was bugged by MI5 while a minister (ST960526), and the travails of the royals at the hands of assorted eavesdroppers are well documented. A report of an uncovered bugging device reveals the sophistication of the technology employed. In the past MI5 has also collected information on CND and Greenham Common protesters, and investigated Welsh extremists who embarked on a letter-bombing campaign. It is reported that 38 MI5 officers followed the suspect at a demonstration, and a team of 20 officers later kept another individual under observation.

It has also been alleged that MI5 infiltrates Scottish and Welsh nationalist organisations, animal rights groups, and politically extreme groupings such as Combat 18. In the book "Enemies of the State" (Simon & Schuster, 1993) former private detective Gary Murray describes how MI5 hired him to keep a watch on anti-nuclear protesters. He describes how the service operates outside its mandate, and quotes an MI5 officer as saying (p.86), "We've had serious problems for years. It is now manifestly obvious that we have lost track of our true identity and role. We waste a considerable amount of our time investigating people who are in no way associated with espionage or subversion. To make matters worse, we have our own subversive clique within the Service, who are a law unto themselves." Murray's book also cites a couple of mysterious deaths which speculation has placed at MI5's door. The case of Hilda Murrell, an anti-nuclear campaigner who disappeared on 21 March 1984, has been widely reported. It has been suggested that an MI5-sponsored burglary of her home went wrong when she surprised the burglars. She was found stabbed to death three days later.

Following the attacks by al-Qaeda on the USA on September 11, 2001, MI5 was re-targeted as a primarily counter-terrorist agency. It has been successful in stopping most but not all of the intended Islamist attacks on the UK although it failed particularly to stop the 7 July 2005 London bombings by four suicide bombers including the alleged ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan, in which 52 people died. It has also been alleged that Security Service officers were complicit in the torture in other countries of several Islamists. MI5 has hugely increased its manpower with further increases planned in a time of national economic depression. It has been alleged that they have dossiers on one in 160 UK adults, so speaking again personally, I would be very interested in seeing mine, although PC Mark Whittle of FTAC lied in February 2007 that no such dossier existed. MI5 is supposed to be governed by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act which came into law on 28 July 2000.

However the resulting Investigatory Powers Tribunal inherited staff and attitudes from the former Security Service Tribunal, and speaking again personally, at the time of writing this article (July 2009) they have had my complaint for almost a year without calling me to appear before them despite my oft expressed wish to do so, and I think they are hoping MI5 might kill me before they have to find the Security Service "Not Guilty" (as they have for twenty years) of stalking and attempted murder. IPT have never found against MI5 and they have only once found in favour of a plaintiff in what might be seen as a token decision against the police. It has been revealed that the London congestion charging system uses face recognition technology to search for suspects. There is also much co-operation between European and American intelligence agencies, with the Europeans having their own network for the exchange of data. There is also significant spend on Irish terrorism, which consumed 29% of MI5's resources in 2002/03, with international counter-terrorism at 32%, and protective security rising to 11%, according to an Intelligence and Security Committee report.

MI5 has assumed responsibility for national security intelligence work in Northern Ireland as of August 2007. The Special Branch has also doubled in size post-9/11, to 4,247 in 2002. Rather worrying is Security Service's use in court of information obtained by torture, which was described in the Guardian on 22 July 2003. In particular prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are known to have been interrogated by MI5 officers. On 28 March 2006 the Guardian revealed two British residents were secretly set up by MI5 for carrying "bomb parts" (which weren't) and kidnapped by the CIA for "rendition" in Cuba. The invasion of Muslim countries appears to have unleashed a storm of terrorism at home; on 10 November 2006 the Guardian revealed MI5 was monitoring 30 terrorist plots and 1,600 individuals, although it is obviously in their interest to exaggerate because they want more staff. That does not excuse the torture of Binyam Mohamed reported in the Guardian of 22 August 2008 whose interrogation was with the participation of an MI5 officer.

Former MI5 chief Stella Rimington was interviewed by the Guardian on 18 October 2008 and appears rather more liberal than you would expect. Follow this link for the piece. She thinks there was a 'huge overreaction' to 9/11, but unfortunately she also says the service does not kill people, which does not tally with my personal experience of 17 November 2001 when Seven Unknown Men shouted abuse outside my window in Orlando willing me to come outside and get shot, a challenge which I ducked. She seems to say that the war in Iraq was a mistake, and only caused more terrorism. It's a very interesting article, and I suggest you read it. I found myself wondering whether she was in some way deluding herself, because MI5 are not nice people in real life, so how can she possibly say what she does in this article? More torture allegations were made in the Guardian on 19 December 2008, that Rangzieb Ahmed's fingernails were torn out by Pakistani intelligence torturers and he was subsequently interrogated by MI5 officers. That is the real face of MI5, not Rimington's wishful thinking.

I have written a short review of Peter Wright's book "Spycatcher" and an outline of the Spycatcher Affair; follow this link for this page. MI5 (British Security Service) - Wartime successes (190945), Soviet infiltration (194679) Espionage Encyclopedia » Lo-Mo » MI5 (British Security Service) MI5 (British Security Service) █ K. LEE LERNER/ JUDSON KNIGHT Best known by its designation MI5, the Security Service is the leading counter-espionage agency working in the United Kingdom. Its functions are somewhat akin to those of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, but MI5 places a much greater emphasis on intelligence, and its operatives have no arrest powers. Formed in 1916, MI5 devoted itself to intelligence operations against the Germans in both world wars, and against Communists in the interwar and postwar periods. During the early Cold War, MI5 suffered a number of embarrassments involving Soviet moles in its midst.

From the 1970s onward, it devoted increasing attention to terrorist activities, and in the 1990s, attempted to balance its sensitive security functions with an increased concern for openness with the British public. Wartime successes (1909–45). MI5 grew out of the Secret Service Bureau, created in 1909 to protect the British realm against German infiltrators. At the beginning of World War I, the Home Section of the bureau came under the control of the War Office, which designated it MI5 (the "MI" refers to military intelligence) in 1916. Over the course of the war, MI5 assisted in the arrest of several dozen German operatives in Britain. Under the direction of Captain Vernon Kell, who served as director-general until 1940, MI5 in the immediate postwar years directed its efforts toward spies associated with the new Communist regime in Russia. It uncovered a major Soviet front operation in 1927, but by the 1930s had begun to focus once again on German infiltration. MI5, led by Sir David Petrie in the war years, apprehended numerous German spies, who were subsequently executed.

Also important, it succeeded in turning a number of other Axis operatives, such that the Nazis remained convinced they had an extensive spy network in Britain—although in fact the spies were working against them. Soviet infiltration (1946–79). The postwar years saw some successes, including Operation Engulf, a program of communications interception directed against the Soviets, French, and Egyptians during the Suez Crisis in 1956. MI5 also captured several Soviet operatives, but its achievements were overshadowed by the uncovering of the Cambridge spy ring, whose members served as Soviet moles while working for the British government. Although neither Donald Maclean nor Kim Philby actually worked for MI5, both were under investigation by the agency when they escaped to the other side of the iron curtain in 1949 and 1963, respectively. Worse revelations were to come. In 1963 it was discovered that Anthony Blunt, who had worked for MI5 in the war years, was also a Soviet agent. Eventually it became apparent that the Soviets had been infiltrating MI5 for most of the postwar period.

The list of suspected Soviet agents included some extremely high officials: director-general Sir Roger Hollis (1956–65) and future director-general Sir Michael Hanley (1972–79). These revelations did little to inspire the trust of American intelligence agencies, which cooperated little with MI5 until after the end of Hanley's tenure. Focus on terrorism (1979-present). By the 1960s, MI5 had become increasingly concerned with terrorism, both by Palestinian and Northern Irish groups. Revelations of Soviet infiltration continued even into the 1980s, when former MI5 operative Michael Bettaney was convicted of espionage on behalf of the KGB. The spy scandals eventually ended, although not so much because of measures MI5 took to counter infiltration, but because of the Soviet Union's collapse. During the mid-1980s, MI5 came under intense government scrutiny in the form of an investigation by Britain's Security Commission. The result of this was the appointment of Sir Anthony Duff to the director-general's position, and in 1988 Duff took measures to reform the agency.

The Security Service Act of 1989 for the first time conferred legal status on MI5, which in December 1991 signaled a new era of openness by announcing the appointment of Stella Rimington as director-general. Rimington became not only its first female director, but the first MI5 chief named in the media. In 1993, MI5 further demonstrated its openness by publishing a booklet titled The Security Service, which described MI5's six branches of operation: counter-terrorism, counterespionage, counter-subversion, protective security, security intelligence, and record keeping. Meanwhile, in 1992, MI5 was given chief responsibility for British intelligence efforts against Irish terrorism, and over the next seven years it helped bring about 21 convictions for crimes related to terrorism. An emphasis on counterterrorism continued under the leadership of Stephen Lander, appointed director-general in 1996. █ FURTHER READING: BOOKS: Andrew, Christopher M. Her Majesty's Secret Service: The Making of the British Intelligence Community. New York: Viking, 1986. Bar-Joseph, Uri. Intelligence Intervention in the Politics of Democratic States: The United States, Israel, and Britain.

University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995. The Security Service: MI5. London: HMSO, 1993. West, Nigel. Molehunt: Searching for Soviet Spies in MI5. New York: W. Morrow, 1989. ELECTRONIC: MI5: The Security Service. < > (April 11, 2003). United Kingdom Intelligence Agencies. Federation of American Scientists. < > (April 11, 2003). SEE ALSO BBC NEWS | UK | Profile: Dame Stella Rimington Profile: Dame Stella Rimington Dame Stella was the first female head of the secret service Dame Stella Rimington, former head of MI5 has accused the government of exploiting the fear of terrorism and trying to bring in laws that restrict civil liberties. For a former security chief she has been surprisingly vocal since her retirement, particularly in her criticism of the government's anti-terror legislation. Dame Stella was the first female director general of the security service and the first to be named and photographed.

When the makers of James Bond films decided to make 007's boss a woman, it was alleged that Judi Dench's character, M, was based on Dame Stella. 'Housewife spy' Dame Stella was recruited by the secret service in 1967, whilst living in India, where her husband, John, had been posted to the British High Commission. When the couple returned to the UK, she decided to apply for a permanent position at MI5. After working her way through the ranks of the organisation Dame Stella became director general of MI5 in 1992. During her time in charge, tabloids called her the "housewife spy" - a nickname Dame Stella admits to detesting - when the secret service named her but did not supply a photograph of her. It was only after a concerted campaign by the press that her identity was exposed. In 1984 she and her husband separated, with Dame Stella maintaining custody of their two daughters.

ID cards may be helpful in all kinds of things but I don't think they are necessarily going to make us any safer Dame Stella Rimington in 2005 The potential threat posed by the IRA at the time meant that the head of MI5 and her family had to move homes and schools. Since leaving the MI5 in 1996, Dame Stella has made the headlines a number of times. Firstly, for publishing her memoirs, Open Secret, which no secret service boss had ever done before. At the time Dame Stella called for the Official Secrets Act to be radically reformed, saying that its demand for the complete confidence of former spies was "unrealistic". Dame Stella's latest comments will not have come as a big surprise as she has condemned much of the government's counter-terrorism legislation in recent years. In 2005 she spoke out against the introduction of ID cards, saying that their potential for forgery made them "absolutely useless". "ID cards may be helpful in all kinds of things but I don't think they are necessarily going to make us any safer," she said.

When the government attempted to extend the pre-charge detention limit to 42 days, Dame Stella was an outspoken critic of the proposals. The former secret service chief also caused controversy when she described the US reaction to the 11 September attacks as a "huge overreaction". Since Dame Stella's retirement she has worked as a director of Marks and Spencer and also the BG group. She has also written four spy fiction novels. On the suggestion that Judi Dench's character M in the James Bond films is modelled on herself, Dame Stella said the depiction was "really very good. Both my daughters said so. One even noted that she holds her hands the way I do." Bookmark with: h2g2 - MI5 - the British Security Service - Edited Entry MI8 - Telegraph 1 censorship MI9 - Postal censorship This is not an exhaustive list, and none of these departments exist today; they have either been disbanded, or amalgamated into other departments. World War I saw a large increase in the responsibilities of MI5. Not only was it now in charge of counter-espionage at home, but also throughout the British Empire .

It also took on the role of vetting employees of 'war factories', and advising the government on alien 2 policy. By the end of the war in 1918, in which time another 35 spies had been captured, MI5 had somewhere in the region of 850 employees. Between the Wars The war was over and after the treaty of Versailles Germany no longer posed a threat; however, this did not mean an end for MI5, just a new threat, Communism. After the Bolshevik Coup d'état in 1917, the British government saw itself as being under threat of subversive tactics from the new Soviet Union . They also saw a threat of sabotage to military installations; this was to be MI5's new focus. The rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany also saw the rise of a new threat to British national Security - subversion from fascists. In 1924, MI5 came into possession of a letter written by Grigory Zinoviev chairman of the 'Comintern' 3 , this letter urged British communists to promote revolution. Kell was convinced this letter was genuine and showed it to Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.

It was agreed that the letter would be kept secret but it somehow got leaked to the press, who published it a few days before the general election. It was partially down to this that Ramsay MacDonald's Labour party lost the election. Shortly afterwards it was claimed that MI5 agents had forged the letter and leaked it to the press. In 1931, MI5 was formally put in charge of British national security (except for threats from Irish militants and anarchists) and was renamed 'The Security Service'. This is the name it goes by today, although it is still more commonly known as MI5. It is around this time that MI6 became 'SIS' or the 'Secret Intelligence Service'. Again this is the name the organisation is known by today, however it is still better known as MI6. World War II The beginning of World War II was not a good time for MI5. It was severely understaffed (just 30 operatives plus six surveillance operatives), it had just been evacuated to Blenheim Palace and its workload had been increased. To top all this off, in September 1940 it lost most of its records to a German bombing raid.

After all these setbacks, in early 1941 David Petrie was appointed as the first ever Director General. He was given the resources to build a more substantial Security Service able to fulfil its role. Despite the early setbacks in World War II, MI5 performed extremely well. It transpired through German intelligence reports captured in 1945, that MI5 had successfully identified and captured all 115 German spies sent to Britain. Furthermore, Germany was unable to recruit a single British person sympathetic to the Nazi Party. Some of the captured German agents were employed by MI5 to feed false information back to Germany; this is the infamous 'double agent' scheme. There is a known case of two double agents, who were instructed by MI5 to give information to Germany that led to a food store being bombed by the Germans. The reason was so that the Germans didn't suddenly realise their agents had changed sides, which they would have done had information suddenly stopped being fed to them. The use of double agents was a great help in the preparations for D-Day . World War II - 1990 The end of World War II saw MI5 focusing most of its energies on the subversive threat from the USSR.

This included the vetting of all peoples employed in 'work vital to national security'. The need for MI5 in this role was validated with the case of the Cambridge Spies . By the early 1950s, staffing levels had reached around 850. In 1952, Prime Minister Winston Churchill passed on the responsibility of overseeing MI5 to the Home Secretary. MI5 to this day still comes under the Home Office. The 1960s saw a lot of action for MI5. To start with, there was the 'Portland Spy Ring'; Harry Houghton was an ex-Royal Navy serviceman, who had been recruited by the KGB whilst working in Warsaw in the 1950s. In the early 1960s, he was working at the Underwater Detection Establishment in Portland. He and his partner Ethel Elizabeth 'Bunty' Gee were passing on British naval secrets to their KGB controller 'Canadian businessman Gordon Lonsdale', real name Colonel Conon Molody of the KGB. After almost a year of MI5 surveillance all three were arrested, during one of their meetings.

In 1961, John Profumo was the Secretary of State for War. At a party, he was introduced to a young lady by the name of Christine Keeler. Although Profumo was a married man, he fell for young Miss Keeler and they had an affair. This in itself doesn't sound any worse than anything any other politician has done, but what made the 'Profumo Affair' so important was that Miss Keeler had also had an affair with Eugene Ivanov, a Soviet spy. Not only that, she also lived with Stephen Ward who was accused of passing on documents to the Soviets. What does this have to do with MI5? It was Lord Denning's report into the 'Profumo Affair' that brought the role of MI5 to the public eye for the first time. The 1970s saw plenty of action as well. In 1971, a total of 105 Soviets were kicked out of Britain for being suspected of being spies. Towards the end of the '70s saw the peak of the Cold War dying off, and with this the threat of subversion subsided slightly. However, there was a relatively new threat for MI5 to focus on, terrorism .

The early 1980s saw terrorist actions such as the Iranian Embassy siege in London. These events tested MI5 in new ways, and it was due to these actions that MI5 was at the forefront of developing an international network with other nations to help combat global terrorism. In 1989, the Security Service Act was introduced. This gave the Security Service a legal standing within the government for the first time since it was first established in 1909. It also meant that MI5 became a lot more accountable for its actions. It could no longer bug somebody's house/business or tap somebody's telephone line without a warrant; these are just a couple of the clandestine things MI5 now has to be wary of carrying out, things that it used to carry out with some degree of freedom. The 1990s The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 saw the beginning of the end for the USSR, and in 1991 the Cold War was officially over. The end of the cold war saw a decrease in the threat of subversion to the point where it was negligible. This meant that MI5 had resources available for other areas.

Due to this and MI5's experience in gathering intelligence on Irish militants abroad, the Metropolitan Police officially handed over the intelligence effort against Irish terrorism on the UK mainland in 1992. Between 1992 and 1999, MI5, working closely with UK police, managed to prevent a few intended terrorist attacks, including large-scale city centre bomb attacks. They also managed to bring 21 convictions against Irish militants for terrorist activities. In 1996, new legislation gave MI5 a totally new field to work in. This is the field of serious crime. MI5 will, when requested, assist UK Police in serious crime cases such as drugs/weapons trafficking, excise fraud and illegal immigration rings. Hall of Fame The following section gives a list of some of the people who have worked for MI5 and the significant roles they have played. Vernon Kell Born in 1873, Vernon Kell was educated at Sandhurst military academy, after which he joined the British Army. Kell was a brilliant linguist; he could speak German, Italian, French and Polish, and he also went on to learn Russian and Chinese. Due to his linguistic skills Kell became an interpreter for the army.

He saw service in the Boxer Rebellion, and spent some time as an intelligence officer. By 1909, Kell was a Captain of the South Staffordshire Regiment; he also worked for the German section of the war office and it was through this post that he came to co-found the Secret Service Bureau with Captain Cumming of the Royal Navy. Vernon Kell remained the head of MI5 until 1940. David Petrie As previously mentioned, David Petrie became Director General in 1941, and did a very good job of rebuilding MI5. In 1945 it had been suggested that the responsibility of tracking Soviet spies and subversives should be handed over to Scotland Yard's Special Branch. David Petrie fully opposed the police being in charge of this task. In a letter to the Home Office, he attacks the police's ability to perform this role. After this the role is kept within MI5. Roger Hollis Roger Hollis joined MI5 in 1939, and worked on the Russian desk. In 1953 he made it to Deputy Director General and by 1956 he was Director General. What's so special about Roger Hollis?

He was accused of being a Soviet mole 4 from the beginning, and the evidence against him although circumstantial is quite weighty. Take the case of Klaus Fuchs, a German refugee who came to Britain in 1933, who was also a member of the communist party. This fact was even passed on to the British by German police but never fully looked into. Fuchs ended up working on the Manhattan project in Los Alamos, which developed the world's first atomic bomb. In 1950 he confessed to being a Soviet spy. Whenever Fuchs was called in to question one of his strongest supporters was Roger Hollis. Then there is the case of 'Kim' Philby one of the Cambridge spies. Philby was a close friend of Roger Hollis. In 1963, when Philby was about to be pulled in for his spying, he was tipped off and he managed to defect to the Soviet Union. One of the few people who could have tipped him off was believed to be Roger Hollis.

Finally, there is the fact that in the time Roger Hollis was Director General of MI5 (1953-1965), there was a growing belief that there was one Soviet spy that had not been identified by MI5 because of interference and protection from within. All spies captured in Britain during this time were identified by defectors to the CIA, but many of the defectors intimated that there was still one spy remaining. Shortly after Hollis retired there was an investigation and he was found to be innocent of any allegations that the spy was in fact himself. It was concluded that the suspicion came as a result of paranoia within the department, fuelled in part by the Soviet Union, which it was believed had probably been spreading rumours and disinformation in order to undermine MI5. Peter Wright Peter Wright was an MI5 officer until his retirement in the early 1980s. Shortly after he left the service, he wrote a book called Spycatcher. In this book he made quite a few revelations about the workings of MI5; he even revealed the existence of a supposed plot by members of MI5 to overthrow the Prime Minister Harold Wilson. This allegation was investigated and found to be false.

Wright later claimed that some of his book was dramatised for effect, and some critics accused Wright of acting out of bitterness over an unresolved issue with his pension. Though Spycatcher has largely been discredited, the lengths the British Government went to in order to silence Wright 5 suggested to many that there was more truth within the book's pages than many were prepared to admit. Stella Rimington Stella Rimington managed two firsts within MI5. Firstly she was the first ever female Director General; secondly her appointment as Director General was the first to be publicly announced. Having worked in MI5 since the late 1960s, she was Director General between 1992 and 1996. Shortly after she retired she wrote her memoirs. At first she met stiff resistance from government on letting her publish them, but because this was happening in the public eye government relented with a compromise. They requested that certain parts of the memoirs were altered and some removed altogether on the grounds of National Security. Despite the fact that her book was submitted and approved by various offices within the government, on its eventual publication the same offices denounced her work as irresponsible, an irony that did not escape Rimington herself.

After this fiasco, Dame Stella Rimington openly criticised the Official Secrets Act 6 saying it was outdated and needed replacing. David Shayler David Shayler is an ex-MI5 operative who left in 1996 after stealing several 'secret' files that he claimed were in the public interest to see. In 1997, he released details to a British newspaper, including a financial connection between Libya and the IRA, an MI6 plot to kill Colonel Gaddafi in 1996, the fact that MI5 kept files on some prominent politicians and evidence that he believed showed MI5 could have prevented the 1994 bombing of the Israeli embassy in London. David Shayler then moved to France with girlfriend Annie Machon also an ex-MI5 officer. France refused to extradite David Shayler, but he returned to the UK of his own free will in 2000. In October 2002 Shayler was sentenced to six month's imprisonment for three charges of breaking the official secrets act. He was released after just seven weeks. David Shayler maintains he released the information in the public's interest to point out MI5's shortcomings.

The government argues there are official channels for whistle-blowing, that don't include the press, or the public. MI5 Today MI5 is currently staffed by around 3,800 people, and it still carries on in pretty much the same role that it did towards the end of the 1990s. The main areas it now covers are: Espionage MI5 facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about MI5 █ K. LEE LERNER/ JUDSON KNIGHT Best known by its designation MI5, the Security Service is the leading counter-espionage agency working in the United Kingdom . Its functions are somewhat akin to those of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, but MI5 places a much greater emphasis on intelligence, and its operatives have no arrest powers. Formed in 1916, MI5 devoted itself to intelligence operations against the Germans in both world wars, and against Communists in the interwar and postwar periods. During the early Cold War , MI5 suffered a number of embarrassments involving Soviet moles in its midst.

From the 1970s onward, it devoted increasing attention to terrorist activities, and in the 1990s, attempted to balance its sensitive security functions with an increased concern for openness with the British public. Wartime successes (1909–45). MI5 grew out of the Secret Service Bureau, created in 1909 to protect the British realm against German infiltrators. At the beginning of World War I, the Home Section of the bureau came under the control of the War Office, which designated it MI5 (the "MI" refers to military intelligence) in 1916. Over the course of the war, MI5 assisted in the arrest of several dozen German operatives in Britain . Under the direction of Captain Vernon Kell, who served as director-general until 1940, MI5 in the immediate postwar years directed its efforts toward spies associated with the new Communist regime in Russia . It uncovered a major Soviet front operation in 1927, but by the 1930s had begun to focus once again on German infiltration. MI5, led by Sir David Petrie in the war years, apprehended numerous German spies, who were subsequently executed.

Also important, it succeeded in turning a number of other Axis operatives, such that the Nazis remained convinced they had an extensive spy network in Britain—although in fact the spies were working against them. Soviet infiltration (1946–79). The postwar years saw some successes, including Operation Engulf, a program of communications interception directed against the Soviets, French, and Egyptians during the Suez Crisis in 1956. MI5 also captured several Soviet operatives, but its achievements were overshadowed by the uncovering of the Cambridge spy ring, whose members served as Soviet moles while working for the British government. Although neither Donald Maclean nor Kim Philby actually worked for MI5, both were under investigation by the agency when they escaped to the other side of the iron curtain in 1949 and 1963, respectively. Worse revelations were to come. In 1963 it was discovered that Anthony Blunt, who had worked for MI5 in the war years, was also a Soviet agent. Eventually it became apparent that the Soviets had been infiltrating MI5 for most of the postwar period.

The list of suspected Soviet agents included some extremely high officials: director-general Sir Roger Hollis (1956–65) and future director-general Sir Michael Hanley (1972–79). These revelations did little to inspire the trust of American intelligence agencies, which cooperated little with MI5 until after the end of Hanley's tenure. Focus on terrorism (1979-present). By the 1960s, MI5 had become increasingly concerned with terrorism, both by Palestinian and Northern Irish groups. Revelations of Soviet infiltration continued even into the 1980s, when former MI5 operative Michael Bettaney was convicted of espionage on behalf of the KGB. The spy scandals eventually ended, although not so much because of measures MI5 took to counter infiltration, but because of the Soviet Union 's collapse. During the mid-1980s, MI5 came under intense government scrutiny in the form of an investigation by Britain's Security Commission. The result of this was the appointment of Sir Anthony Duff to the director-general's position, and in 1988 Duff took measures to reform the agency.

The Security Service Act of 1989 for the first time conferred legal status on MI5, which in December 1991 signaled a new era of openness by announcing the appointment of Stella Rimington as director-general. Rimington became not only its first female director, but the first MI5 chief named in the media. In 1993, MI5 further demonstrated its openness by publishing a booklet titled The Security Service, which described MI5's six branches of operation: counter-terrorism, counterespionage, counter-subversion, protective security, security intelligence, and record keeping. Meanwhile, in 1992, MI5 was given chief responsibility for British intelligence efforts against Irish terrorism, and over the next seven years it helped bring about 21 convictions for crimes related to terrorism. An emphasis on counterterrorism continued under the leadership of Stephen Lander, appointed director-general in 1996. █ FURTHER READING: BOOKS: Andrew, Christopher M. Her Majesty's Secret Service: The Making of the British Intelligence Community. New York : Viking, 1986. Bar-Joseph, Uri. Intelligence Intervention in the Politics of Democratic States: The United States , Israel, and Britain.

University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995. The Security Service: MI5. London: HMSO, 1993. West, Nigel. Molehunt: Searching for Soviet Spies in MI5. New York: W. Morrow, 1989. ELECTRONIC: MI5: The Security Service. < > (April 11, 2003). United Kingdom Intelligence Agencies. Federation of American Scientists. < > (April 11, 2003). SEE ALSO Order of Stella Rimington Books - OrderOfBooks.com Home | Characters | Authors Order of Stella Rimington Books Stella Rimington is a British author of spy thriller novels. She writes the Liz Carlyle series. Rimington was the first female Director-General of MI5, which was a post she held for four years from 1992 until 1996. Prior to that, she had been working in the Security Service since 1965. During that time, she worked in all of the various fields covered by the agency, including counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism.

Stella Rimington made her debut as a published author in 2001 with her memoirs, entitled Open Secret: The Autobiography of the Former Director-General of MI5. In 2004, she became a novelist with the novel At Risk, which introduced her Liz Carlyle series. Below is a list of Stella Rimington’s books in order of when they were originally published: Publication Order of Liz Carlyle Books At Risk

Question: In 1992, who became the first female Director-General of the British Security Service MI5?
Answer: Stella Rimington